The battle marches on

Nothing new has actually happened over the past week on the budget front, but the battle for the hearts and mind of elected officials continued Tuesday, with — you guessed it — a rally outside City Hall.

The rally, organized by the Coalition to Save Public Health (a group made up of nonprofit service providers, neighborhood organizations, public health workers and other advocates) featured short speeches by a number of city workers who are being laid off or who work in programs that are being cut. (We should note that Supervisors David Campos, Chris Daly, Ross Mirkarimi and John Avalos also made appearances.) The attendees demanded that city officials save health services and spoke in support of a special election that would focus on tax increases and other revenue measures. The election could be set as early as June.

At Tuesday’s rally, health care workers attempted to humanize the gargantuan cuts that the city is required to make — $118 million this year and another $576 million next year. Shirley Chang, a nurse at a psychiatric acute treatment unit at San Francisco General Hospital that cares for mentally ill Asian Americans, expressed concern that the termination of that unit could lead to her former clients harming themselves or others. And Norma Ledesma, a unit clerk at General Hospital who has two kids and a mortgage, said she’s been on pins and needles since being told in November that she would be losing her job.